LIBRARY ASSOCIATION RESPONSE

Introduction

The Library Association is the professional body representing librarians and information managers in the United Kingdom. Under the terms of our Royal Charter we have a duty to promote high quality library and information services and advise government, employers and others on all aspects of library and information services. Many of our 26,000 members have responsibility within the public sector and elsewhere for archives and archival documents within libraries and information units where other services are leading the development and growth of on-line access.

The Library Association welcomes the opportunity to comment on this consultationⁱ. We recognise the increasing importance of archives in promoting cultural and educational policies and goals, and their increasing visibility in the public sector with the growth of interest in family, local and national history. Furthermore the Library Association is committed to ensuring the widest possible access to, and preservation of, information resources of all kinds. To this end we are committed to promoting the development of policies suitable for supporting such access, whether physical or electronic.

Recent Government initiatives such as New Library: The People's Networkⁱⁱ have highlighted the necessity of making a wide range of information available in electronic format to bring resources into the widest possible public domain, and funding opportunities such as the New Opportunities Fund have been established to make electronic access viable by funding the provision of staff training and electronic networks. Proposals to make a variety of information resources accessible in electronic format via these networks are therefore very timely.

The recommendations made within the report fall within three areas - stand alone quality initiatives which relate to national standards of data capture or training, recommendations which relate directly to the process of creating and funding an Archives Network, and recommendations to the Government which cover further funding initiatives.

Recommendation 1.
The Library Association would strongly endorse the official adoption of recognised national and international data standards by archive repositories in the UK as a necessary adjunct to any systematic collection or dissemination of material, and as a means of facilitating remote access to such resources. It recognises this as a quality initiative which should be promoted whatever the outcome of the Archives On-Line proposal.

Recommendation 2.
The Library Association supports the provision of accredited training, and in its accreditation of professional courses in library and information studies it has already developed links with Universities' teaching record structures and data standards. Through the work of the Lead Body it already promotes S/NVQ archive training programmes. It recognises this recommendation as a necessary initiative to permit the recognition and use of the national and international standards.

Recommendations 4 and 9.
The Association supports retrospective data conversion initiatives and proposals, and would highlight the desirability of adopting communication protocols which facilitate the retrieval of content as well as its registration. The Association would draw the attention of the National Council on Archives and the Networking Policy Committee to the proposals of the report Making the Most of Our Librariesⁱⁱⁱ and to the 1989 Recommendations on Retrospective Conversion of Library Catalogues to Machine Readable Form^iv , both of which promote and support similar initiatives. The Association would urge the Networking Policy Committee to investigate existing initiatives which may parallel the proposals put forward in Archives On-Line, (this research may be covered by the proposals in Recommendation 9).

Recommendation 5
The Association would support the creation of a National Name Authority file, and would identify this as a further data standard essential to future digitisation of data, and as a quality initiative which should be promoted whatever the outcome of the Archives On-Line proposal. The Association would draw the attention of the Committee to the BL/BNB authority name files as a possible foundation for a future standardisation.

Recommendations 3, 6 and 8
These three recommendations deal with the body of information proposed for the Archives On-Line project, and the form in which it will be implemented and presented. The Association would not disagree with the intentions behind these proposals, but is concerned that much more detailed planning will be required for this, the most complex part of the project. The proposals in Archives On-Line present the background to these recommendations in very general terms, and the Association was disappointed that the more detailed discussions with JISC over the implementation of the proposal did not take place before the proposal was put forward, thus ensuring a more informed consultative document. In particular the Association would draw the attention of the Networking Policy Committee to the two Info 2000 Exploiting Europe's Public Sector Information Proposals - the short listed proposal for a European Archive Network (EUAN) Ref 1107, and the reserve listed Electronic Access to Archives (EUROARCHIVE) Ref 1195. The European Archive Network proposal was put forward by the UK, and would appear to directly impinge on the National Council on Archives Archives On-Line proposal.
The Association is also concerned that given the timescale involved in implementing the proposal there is every possibility that technological developments will necessitate data migration before the completion of the programme. Bearing in mind the less stable nature of digital technology long term, the Association would like to be assured that a monitoring system for future developments will be built in, with administrative costs of any eventually adopted changes included in the costs of the project.

Recommendations 11, 14 and 15
These three recommendations depend upon specific decisions by the Government on funding and policy issues. While the Association supports in principal the extension of Government funding sources to a wider range of library, archive and information initiatives, it is concerned that the proposals for the funding of training, revenue and network costs rest upon external policy decisions which may not be attainable.

Recommendations 10, 12 and 13
These three recommendations are concerned with the proposed end-user charges, and again the Association is concerned that insufficient support may be found to provide funding, and that the policies proposed to obtain revenue from repositories may be too generalised.

The Association is particularly concerned that a number of archive preservation and access projects and policies are being proposed or implemented at present, and perceives a possibility that the Archives On-Line project may duplicate or conflict with other archive initiatives. The research proposed by the Committee should include detailed investigation of existing projects to avoid such duplication.

The Library Association would willingly be involved in future discussions or consultation on this project and was disappointed that no official Library Association representation was sought when the Networking Policy Committee was set up. The Library Association welcomes the opportunity to make these comments to the NCA on what we consider to be an area of importance for the future of archival collections, and would be pleased to supply further comments to clarify or amplify our position.

September 1998

ⁱ Archives On-Line: The Establishment of a United Kingdom Archival Network National Council on Archives, 1998

ⁱⁱ New Library: The People's Network Library & Information Commission, October 1997

ⁱⁱⁱ Making the Most of Our Libraries: The report of two studies on the retrospective conversion of library catalogues in the United Kingdom and the need for a national strategy. Philip Bryant BLRIC Report 53, 1997